Dr Johnson is the International Coordinator for the OBidient Movement, the Peter Obi presidential support group during the 2023 presidential election. He was recently cornered by our Abuja Bureau Chief, Udoka Ekeleme, who engaged him in a chat on topical issues affecting the Movement, especially as they relate to the upcoming 2027 general election. Dr. Johnson delved into why the OBidient Movement is not in support of the alliance between their principal, Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, how Obi won the 2023 presidential election against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and was eventually robbed, as well as how the OBidient Movement would work against the repeat of the 2023 alleged manipulation during the 2027 presidential election
Good morning, can we know you?
Good morning, I am Dr Barry Avotu Johnson, the first International Coordinator for the OBidient Movement Worldwide.
The obedient movement was founded and designed to promote good governance and respect for the rule of law and to found a Nigeria that is possible for the good of our people.
In 2023, we adopted Dr. Peter Obi as our presidential candidate and as the best candidate for the presidency, and now for 2027, we are yet to decide support for any candidate. We are waiting for the process of the Electoral Act and INEC electioneering calendar where all candidates will be elected either by consensus or by primary election by their parties.
After all parties present their candidates, we can then endorse the best candidate from among them. If we endorse Dr Peter Obi today and he ends up not being a candidate, what do we do?
Those are the questions we ask people who are asking for our stand.
You must know that politics is not done by emotion. Is Peter Obi the best candidate? Yes, best person? Yes. Good person? Yes. Someone who is ready to move Nigeria forward? Yes. But what if he fails to become the candidate of any political party, do you say that OBidient Movement will just stay away?
If we say that we are a movement, organic movement created by God Almighty to put Nigeria back on track as a country that will be the model for Africa, we are expected to do the right thing and what is the right thing?
We are not a political party, we are a political association founded by the Nigerian people on the streets, those who wish Nigeria well, those who will obey the rule of law, those who will come out and contest for the good of Nigeria, those are the OBidient members, and that is what we are out for.
Are you saying that the OBidient members are not just followers of Peter Obi?
The OBidient Movement is a political association and not a political party, it is not an association created for Dr Peter Obi as a person, that is why the slogan, “Nigeria that is possible”.
There is this belief that the OBidient Movement was a support group for Peter Obi, but the way you sound it appears the Movement may have another agenda different from the popular opinion. Will the Movement support a good candidate from APC, PDP, LP or NDP if Obi happens not to be on the ballot?
The OBidient Movement is not for Peter Obi. At our press briefing recently we told the world that we have removed anything that is connected with the Labour Party from the OBidient Movement. Peter Obi is not the owner of OBidient Movement. It is owned by Nigerians. We are a political pressure group founded on quality leadership, respect for the rule of law and good governance.
Peter Obi was only adopted in 2023 as the best candidate and we will do same again if he emerges the candidate of any political party and remains the best candidate after all other political parties have presented their candidates.
Peter Obi is not the owner of OBidient Movement. OBidient Movement is not about political party. The OBidient Movement is owned by the Nigerian people. Any Nigerian on the streets, any Nigerian who is interested in good governance, quality leadership and respect for the rule of law is an OBidient and owner of the group. It is not a group that would come out and support bad leaders, people who have failed, whom we have seen that they have failed, should we come out and support them? It means that we don’t know what we’re doing.
What do you think about the alliance between Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso?
As for an individual, I can speak. But as a Movement, I don’t think we have any business with that until they become candidates. For now, I can tell you that that marriage is not an authentic marriage because if you look at the history of politics in Nigeria, Peter Obi was new in the national politics when he was introduced by the Labour Party in 2023. So, his history is very brief as a presidential candidate.
But you see Rabiu Kwankwaso, we know him as a political vote seller. Rabiu Kwankwaso is a political trader who pushes himself into the best place he can get or the best place his interest can be protected. Rabiu Kwankwaso is not a man that we should trust. He might even be working with the ruling party and Present Bola Ahmed Tinubu to destroy Peter Obi. Because if you look at him, in 2023, he had more than 1.5 million votes in Kano.
Now the person he brought to become governor has left him. Now he does not have the incumbent power to muscle up to 300,000 votes in Kano because Rabiu Kwankwaso is a good teacher, every good teacher must pour himself into the next leader. And the next leader now in Kano is the governor who is still a Kwankwasiyya member, he has not resigned from the Kwankwasiyya group.
So, his Kwankwasiyya group is divided into two: One group is following Rabiu Kwankwaso, and the other group is following the governor. So, it means that the 1. something million votes he got in 2023 is already shared into two; 30 percent goes to Rabiu Kwankwaso because he doesn’t have the funds to mobilize these young people anymore. But the governor who has deployed people and appointed people must have more than 70 percent.
So, where would Rabiu Kwankwaso bring the 1.5 million votes for the marriage with Peter Obi to make Peter Obi the winner of the 2027 election if they become candidates of the NDC?
Those are the issues you should check. It is a suicide mission for Peter Obi for now. If it was at the time of ADC coalition and Peter Obi was ends up becoming the candidate of that party…but now Peter Obi is standing as an individual; how can he make it?
The worse part of it is that the NDC is in court. Peter Obi might end up not being on the ballot if care is not taken, and if the case continues and is won by the person that took them to court, that means Peter Obi will not be on the ballot, the next thing that will happen is protest, and after protect they would shoot guns and everybody would go to their house and that’s all. Have you seen the implication of not staying in one place? Have you seen the implication of scattering your supporters?
So, that’s why I said that the OBidient Movement is not about Peter Obi. Peter Obi was only adopted by the OBidient Movement in 2023 and we’re hopeful that he comes out victorious under the NDC so that we can now qualify him with whosoever that are presented by all the other political parties before we take our decision.
Does the OBidient Movement have sympathy for Peter Obi come 2027?
Of course! The OBidient Movement should have sympathy for Peter Obi because he was adopted as our candidate in 2023. Forget about the mistakes he made, forget about the rigging of the election. Peter Obi won that election using the OBidient Movement as support group. But the fact remains that we must still have sympathy for Peter Obi as the person whom we adopted in 2023. But the issue there is that we need to clear our head from the activities of Peter Obi jumping from one party to the other. If Peter Obi listened to people and avoided listening to bad advice from his detractors sent by the opposition party in 2024, by now the Labour Party he used in 2023 would have become a bigger party.
All the mistakes done by the Labour Party and Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Organization in 2023 should have been settled by now, and Labour Party would have presented Peter Obi in stronger manner because at their Convention in Nnewi where Dr. Julius Abure became National Chairman, Peter Obi was cleared unopposed, with party ticket given to him free of charge to become the presidential candidate in 2023. But he chose to listen to wrong advice, they deceived you and you left the place.
Now the party has been destroyed, and the opportunity of having that ticket again is destroyed, now the party is in shambles, so what is left now, only carcass. If Peter Obi cannot manage ordinary Labour Party of 145 EXCO membership, is it Nigeria he would be able to govern? We were advising Peter Obi to stay in one place so we can consolidate. Peter Obi had chance to come back to Labour Party, restructure it and Nigerians would support him again.
Is it still possible for Peter Obi to return to Labour Party considering that the next election is by the corner?
Yes, Peter Obi didn’t resign from Labour Party, he is still a member. Did see his resignation letter anywhere? He’s still a member of Labour Party, forget what is happening.
Don’t you think that there was interference from the APC government which made the Labour Party issue to drag so long and forced Peter Obi out?
If you look at it as an outsider, you will think that the problem was caused by external forces. No. The problem was caused by Peter Obi himself because he was listening to mad people who don’t understand politics. In 2023, if you check the rating of voters across the country, you will confirm that the North did not vote for Peter Obi.
So, they advised Peter Obi that if the national leadership of Labour Party was handed over to a Northern group, they would be able to move towards bringing bigger votes in another election, and Peter formed a gang and a set up to remove the Chairman who was in the party for 22 years, Julius Abure who was even the one who handed the ticket to Peter Obi and Alex Otti. So, the gang up was to remove Julius Abure. And if you wanted to remove Julius Abure, why not use the NEC of the party or the NWC?
But you chose to do it by force because you have government money in your hand as a former governor. And the people you want to remove, they have their legal ground to fight. They will fight you because you came to the party to meet them. If you wanted a change like that; why not fraternize with them, sit with them, discuss with them because politics is negotiation or pay them off if that is possible. Take over the party and move.
Julius Abure is a good man, all the allegations they put on his head, go and check out, it’s just that they wanted to nail him, as a dog to give him bad name to hang it. All the people fighting to take over Labour Party using Peter Obi, where are they today? They have all joined PDP. Those who started the fight to remove Julius Abure, where are they today? They have left Peter Obi, and some of them are in APC; very few of them followed him to NDC. Even former Labour Party governorship candidate in Lagos (Gbadebo) Rhodes has left him NDC, he refused to follow Peter Obi to NDC. Look at the spokesperson, Kenneth Okonkwo, he refused to leave the ADC and even promoting Atiku Abubakar today because Peter Obi took some decisions that were wrong.
Was it not Barr. Abure, a South south man, that was the national Chairman and Peter Obi won the 2023 presidential election? So, why should Peter Obi remove him by force? Now the party you joined; is it not a South southerner who is the Chairman? Now the same thing you’re fighting in Labour Party is what you’ve gone to meet in NDC. What exactly did you gain in fighting Abure who gave you ticket to contest? Because in the first place Peter Obi was not qualified to be the presidential candidate of Labour Party, but Abure gave him a waiver and asked every other person to step down. If it is you, after all you have done; will you allow anybody to push you out of the party? That’s what happened.
Now Julius Abure is in the Supreme Court fighting for the soul of the party which has been hijacked by Alex Otti and Nenadi Usman, and they’re going to use it to help Ahmed Tinubu at the centre, just like what Chukwuma Soludo did with APGA to save himself. It is the same thing Alex Otti is doing, and they will use Labour Party to retain Alex Otti as governor, and also use that same party to endorse Tinubu to continue for the next four years.
Do you expect credible election from this current INEC Chairman?
Well, the INEC Chairman is new. The only thing we need to do is to put pressure for to do the needful. I keep telling Nigerians that the INEC Chairman has no business in deciding who becomes the president. The person who has the power to make the president are the people. The OBidient Movement will do anything to stand to defend the votes of Nigerians. The INEC Chairman can only do what we present, we will defend our votes. We will have our own server to present votes at the same time. We will also mobilize Nigerians to protect the votes. This is the first time it will happen. We will have our own server, we will have our own agents in all the polling units across the 774 Local Government Areas in the country. At the end of the day, we will present the winner of the presidential election to the world. The INEC will announce their own, we will announce our own, we will make sure that the votes of Nigerians are protected.
Does the OBidient Movement have constitutional power to announce election results?
All over the world, Civil Society Organizations have the power to present election results according to what we see. We will only announce the result according to the voting evidence that we have, but we will not declare anybody the winner. Presenting results and declaring the winner are two different things; we don’t have the authority to declare anybody winner, but we have authority as the watchdog to present election results as supervisor and caretaker for election we supervised.
Where there is disparity in your figure and INEC figure, how do you marry them?
We will tell the people what we saw in the field while supervising election using what we call, “Votes Must Count International Initiative (VMCII), we formed it since 2010. It is that same organ that declared Peter Obi winner of the 2023 presidential election. Whatever we present is the true, authentic result collated by agents.
